BEAUTY IN THE ANIMAL CREATION. 465 



against the stormy winds of politics, which now-a-days set all the 

 world in a ferment, I venture a small attempt at pleasantry, and say, 

 that I never pass this tree and millstone without thinking of poor 

 old Mr Bull, with a weight of eight hundred millions of pounds round 

 his galled neck ; fruitful source of speculation to a Machiavel, but of 

 sorrow to a Washington. 



BEAUTY IN THE ANIMAL CREATION. 



EVERY species in the great family of animated nature is perfect in 

 its own way, and most admirably adapted to the sphere of life in 

 which an all-ruling Providence has ordered it to move. Could we 

 divest ourselves of the fear which we have of the serpent, and forget 

 for a while the dislike which we invariably show to the toad, both 

 these animals would appear beautiful in our eyes ; for, to say 

 nothing of the brilliant colours which adorn the snake, there is won- 

 derful grace and elegance in the gliding progress wherein this 

 reptile's symmetry appears to such great advantage. The supposed 

 horribly fascinating power, said to be possessed by the serpent, 

 through the medium of the eye, has no foundation in truth. We 

 give the snake credit for fixing his eye upon us, when in fact he 

 can do no such thing ; for his eye only moves with his body, and 

 it has always the same appearance, and remains in the same 

 position, whether the animal be roused by rage, or depressed by 

 fear. It is shielded by an outward scale, which has no communi- 

 cation with it, and against which it cannot press ; so that when we 

 bihold the eye of the serpent represented by artists as starting out 

 of the socket, we know that their delusive imagination has been at 

 work, and that they are lamentably ignorant of the anatomy of this 

 animal. If Mr Swainson be an admirer of correctness in design, I 

 would recommend him to revise and correct his overstrained eulogy 

 on a certain overstrained performance which he terms, " Mocking 

 Birds defending their nest from a Rattle-snake." (See " Biography of 

 Birds.") 



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